Preserved Lemons

Now that we're learning how to cook Moroccan food, we decided to preserve our own lemons. After doing a bit of research, here's how we did it. I bought organic lemons. Wash the lemons and dry completely before processing.
I washed and sterilized a wide mouth canning jar.

Zest 6 of the lemons. I used a potato peeler because I didn't have a zester. I laid the peels on a pan and froze them for future use.

Cut the lemons in half and juice them. Remove any seeds. Pour it into a jar and store in the frig. You'll need this tomorrow.

Now, slice the remaining 6 lemons in quarters BUT do not slice all the way through. Stop when you get to about 1/2" from the bottom so the lemon remains intact. Pour some Kosher salt in a bowl. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of salt in each lemon.

Pack the lemons in the jar. You may have to squeeze them a bit, but they'll go in.

Put the lids on and leave them on the counter overnight.

In the morning fill the jars to the top with the reserved lemon juice that you put away. Store these in a dark place. I put mine under the kitchen sink. Shake once a day. Leave them for a month.

That's when they're supposed to be done. I'm three weeks away and will report back at the end of that time.
I'm not really sure how to store the lemons after that point, but will poke around on the internet and see what my next step is. I'll keep you posted.
Until next time.....

Ras el Hanout Chicken

The first thing we made in the tagine was chicken and vegetables. Actually, John made it. I chopped veggies. We didn't follow a recipe. We hardly ever do, but here's the gist of it.
Dredge the chicken in the Ras el Hanout. Brown in a dutch oven. Transfer to the tagine. Start stacking the veggies. We used: yellow bells, red onions, garlic, olives, chickpeas, carrots, turnips, red potatoes, lemons and parsley.
Cover and bake at 325-350 for about an hour or until chicken is to your liking.

Sorry for the crumby pictures. I'm still trying to figure out the new camera. I haven't gotten the hang of night photography. There is no photo of the finished dish. By the time it was ready, we were starving. It was delicious and we were very happy with the way our spice blend turned out.
Until next time.....

Ras El Hanout

The other day John came home with something he said that he's wanted for a while now. A tagine. Who knew? He's an excellent cook and is always trying something new. Moroccan cooking was new to both of us, so I hit the books and internet.
We thought we'd try something simple, so we made a chicken dish. It called for Ras El Hanout, which is a spice blend native to Morocco. It can vary from person to person and be as simple or complex as you wish.
I made a blend with the herbs and spices that we had on hand; all of which are being used in the ground state. This made 1 cup.

2 T. each: granulated garlic or garlic powder, salt, cumin, ginger, turmeric
4 1/2 t. black pepper
1 T. each: cinnamon, white pepper, coriander, cayenne, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom
1 1/2 t. cloves

We needed a shaker because our other ones were being used, so I drilled holes in the top of a canning lid. Put a new lid on top of the drilled one and screw on when you're ready to store the mix.

I'll be back with pictures of our chicken dish later in the week.
Until next time.....